Among hundreds of books, magazines, and documents, the Lea County Museum’s archives room contains a very small daybook from 1906 that belonged to Lea County rancher Matthew Sewalt. A rancher’s daybook is a daily log or a combination of a diary, chronicle, log, bookkeeping list, ledger, journal, or diary.  The Sewalt book is handwritten and…

Two local community members have been named Devon Hometown Heroes as a result of their devotion to bolstering the strength of the community during a widely difficult past year. Jennifer Armendariz and Lorenzo Velasquez were both recognized for the honor. Armendariz is the Emergency Manager for the Eddy County Office of Emergency Management. In this…

In a joyous return to in-person performances, the Community Players of Hobbs performed to raucous laughter with their first play of their 84th season: Mama Won’t Fly. The comedic play was well received by audiences both in-person and streaming online, particularly in light of the year’s need for comedic relief. Written in 2012 by Jamie…

A ferocious storm kicked up a massive amount of dust in Lea County and West Texas on Monday afternoon. The haboob (dust storm) caused residents in the area to lose power and telephone services. Strong wind gusts up to 80 mph damaged 30 transmission poles, and several wooden distribution poles, Lea County Electric Cooperative said….

Making it. A colloquialism that has come to be relevant in the day to day of American life. Making it. Meaning you are getting by—some more so than others. Lea County is making it; we are getting by and getting through tough times, perhaps one of the toughest times our county has ever faced. Oil…

To protect and to serve may be the motto of police departments across the country, but it’s the Hobbs Police Department that will be a little more protected now. A grant was recently approved by oil and gas company Oxy that enabled the Hobbs Police Department to purchase several Biomist sprayers to act as a…

The Clean Economy Act of 2020 (S.3269) was introduced in the 116th Congress on February 2, 202 and was referred to the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. NM senators Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich joined 30 other Democrats to support the bill. The Clean Economy Act, which the NM senators had co-sponsored, sparked…

Over the last 20 years, I have seen literally thousands of standup and kneel-down, eyes-on-the camera photographs of cowboys. But there was something about this one picture from 79 years ago that was instantly arresting and provocative for me. For one thing, it had children in it, usually the older family portraits would be all…

Lea County is officially “Going Green” based on the latest COVID-19 reports released by the New Mexico Department of Health. For a county to qualify for a “Green” status in the state, the county must have eight or fewer daily COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents, and a positive test rate of five percent or lower,…

Don’t believe the tripe about Democrats and Republicans not working together. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) and Rep. Yvette Herrell (R-2) both want President Joe Biden to end his 60-day suspension on the approval of federal oil and gas permits. An environmental activist, on the other hand, wants business and politicians to use the pause…